THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN

COMICSA P R E S E N TAT I O N BY S U M M E R C A R LT O N

THE “GOLDEN AGE”1930’S-1940’S

• The Career Oriented Women- Women during WW1 working as secretaries, and nurses rather than working for war efforts.

• The Romantics- Includes the “good girl” who either ends up in a fairytale romantic relationship or gets her heart broke. Then there’s the ”bad girl” who is the one breaking the hearts.

• The Perky Teenagers- Your typical, boy crazy, loud music-listening, high school cheerleader type.

FIRST KNOWN FEMALE SUPERHERO

• Fantomah, from writer Fletcher Hanks, first debuted in February 1940 in Jungle Comics #2. • An immortal, Egyptian woman with the ability to turn into a

skull faced creature and fight evil.

A NEW ROLE MODEL• Created by William Moulton Marston and his

wife Elizabeth, Wonder Woman made her debut in 1941 All Star Comics #8.

• Wonder Woman was created to be a positive role model to women.

• "America's woman of tomorrow should be made the hero of a new type of comic strip. By this, I mean a character with all the allure of an attractive woman, but with the strength also of a powerful man.” –William Moulton Marston

THE “SILVER AGE”1960’S-1970’S

• DC COMICS-• Women were not

leads, but often had romantic connections with a superhero’s alter ego.

MARVEL COMICS-

• When Atlas Comics became Marvel Comics, the role of women in comics was more common

THE ”BRONZE AGE”1980’S• Taking women’s roles in comics further to bring out the

equality in female characters. • Changes were made, such as names, personality, physical

and mental ability, and physical appearance.

• Jean Grey from X-men, she is a great example of comic writers giving women a more mature, powerful role. Her transformation from “Just Jean” to the Dark Phoenix is a nod to the women’s movement of the of the time.

Originally created in 1943, the iconic “We Can Do It!” poster became symbol for the 1980’s feminist movement.

WOMEN MINORITIES IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

Ororo Munroe, Storm, was the first African-American team member to be recruited to the X-Men. She eventually succeeded Cyclops in his leadership position. She is highly regarded and respected by professor Xavier and the rest of the X-Men.

Monica Rambeau was the second Captain Marvel.

WOMEN AS SEXUAL OBJECTS

• Although women were being increasingly portrayed as stronger characters, the use of them as sex objects was, and still is incredibly prevalent.

• For example, Beverly Switzler poses nude as way to make ends meet. Or Emma Frost who is always drawn in lingerie.

• Even though shes a lawyer in the courtroom, Jennifer Walters, She Hulk, is drawn as a sexualized, sultry business women.

GIRL POWER• In 1999, DC’s ”Birds of Prey” debuted the first ever, all female crime fighting team.

“OF ALL PEOPLE, YOU KNOW WHO I AM…WHO THE WORLD NEEDS ME TO BE. I’M WONDER WOMAN.” -INFINITE CRISIS #1

THE END

REFERENCE PAGE

• "Women in Comics (Concept)." Comic Vine. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2017